Police: Tupper area teens steal, crash two cars

April 28, 2014

A pair of teenagers from the Tupper Lake area were arrested Sunday and accused of stealing two cars, taking them on joyrides and crashing them.

A joint investigation by Tupper Lake-based state police and the Tupper Lake Police Department led to the arrest of a 16-year-old male from Piercefield and a 15-year-old male from Tupper Lake.

Village Police Chief Eric Proulx said that sometime early Sunday morning, the pair stole a 2000 Subaru Impreza that was parked on Hill Street in the village. It had been left unlocked with the keys inside it, Proulx said.

Police aren't sure how long the teens were in the Impreza but said they eventually crashed it on Haymeadow Drive, outside the village.

"It appears they were going at a high rate of speed coming down a hill, lost control and went into the trees," village police Sgt. Sean Stradley said. "There was extensive front-end damage to the driver's side and the passenger side door area."

The pair then allegedly stole a second vehicle, a 2010 Ford Edge, from a residence on Haymeadow Drive. Like the Impreza, it was left unlocked with the keys inside, according to state police Troop B spokeswoman Jennifer Fleishman. The Edge was found crashed at the intersection of state Route 421 and state Route 30 in the town of Piercefield.

"It looks like they had gone down 421 heading toward Bog River, then turned around and came back," Fleishman said. "As they were coming back to the intersection of 30, it looks like they took the turn too hard and crashed."

The car went off the west shoulder of the road, rolled over and came to rest in a grassy area at the base of an embankment. It's been deemed totaled, Fleishman said. The teens apparently fled the scene again.

Police don't know exactly at what time each car was stolen, but the phones at the village police station started lighting up by late Sunday morning.

"It kind of all came in at once," Proulx said. "(State police) had the crashed vehicle out on state Route 30. At the same time, the owner of the vehicle in the village reported his vehicle stolen. Then we got a report of a vehicle crashed on Haymeadow. It all kind of happened around the same time."

A state police K9 search unit was dispatched to the second crash scene, but the dog couldn't pick up the pair's trail.

Village police eventually located the suspects after pursuing leads from another recent report of a stolen car.

"We actually had another stolen vehicle Friday night or Saturday morning that we investigated, but there were no charges in it," Proulx said. "We started with people involved in that, and it turned out to be related."

Proulx said the two teens "didn't really say why they did it."

He said police believe each one took turns driving each car.

Asked about any injuries from the crashes, Stradley said one of the teens went to the hospital, was checked out and released.

The pair face charges in both the town and village of Tupper Lake. State police charged both the 16-year-old and the 15-year-old with third-degree grand larceny, a class D felony. The older teen was arraigned in town court and released under the supervision of probation. The 15-year-old was released on a family court appearance ticket.

The two were then taken to the Tupper Lake Police Department, where they were each charged with third-degree grand larceny and second-degree criminal mischief, all class D felonies. The 16-year-old was arraigned in village court and released under the supervision of probation. The 15-year-old was issued family court appearance tickets.